This invention relates to a connector, or a universal serial bus (USB) receptacle, mateable with at least two kinds of mating connectors (plugs), wherein the connector comprises a detecting structure to identify the kind of the mating connector mated with the connector.
For example, this type of connector is disclosed in JP-A 2013-30452 (Patent Document 1), the content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
As shown in FIGS. 27 and 28, the connector disclosed in Patent Document 1 is a USB receptacle compliant with a USB standard. This USB receptacle is selectively mateable with a standard USB plug (not shown) compliant with the USB standard or a special USB plug along a mating direction. The special USB plug comprises a special shell made of a conductive material such as a metal. The special shell has an identifiable portion which is not included in the standard USB plug. The USB receptacle comprises a shell made of a conductive material, a holding member made of an insulating material such as a resin and a detector made of a conductive material. The holding member is covered by the shell while holding the detector.
When the USB receptacle and the special USB plug are mated with each other along the mating direction, the identifiable portion of the special shell is brought into contact with and is electrically connected with the detector so that the USB receptacle can detect that the special USB plug is mated therewith. Accordingly, the USB receptacle mated with the special USB plug can work differently from the USB receptacle mated with the standard USB plug.
When the USB receptacle of Patent Document 1 is mated with the special USB plug, the identifiable portion of the special shell is moved along a side surface of the holding member. At that time, an end of the identifiable portion might be brought into abutment with the side surface of the holding member to shave the side surface. As a result, the shavings might be carried to the detector by the identifiable portion to adhere to the detector. When the shavings adhere to the detector, the detector and the identifiable portion might not be preferably electrically connected with each other.